The present invention relates to methods and systems for providing a nutraceutical program specific to an individual animal. More particularly, the present invention enables an assessment of the health of internal organs of an animal, and the available vitamins, minerals and enzymes required for the metabolic processes. Using blood results and medical history, the Nutritional Blood Test (NBT) provided by the present invention prioritizes the nutrients required to optimize organ function and balance metabolism. It then matches the results to specific nutraceuticals that support a clinical response.
An animal's organs and glands, though not considered pathological, may nonetheless be functioning less than optimally. There may be underlying weaknesses, deficiencies or imbalances, which if left unchecked, may degenerate into a disease process.
Standard blood testing focuses strictly on pathology and often fails to expose metabolic and physiological weaknesses. While blood testing is customarily the first step toward diagnosis, the need exists for an analysis that distinguishes organ weaknesses rather than simply identifying “normals” and “abnormals.” The orientation needs to be expanded from “what organs are not functioning” to “how the organs should be functioning.”
In the past, the standard treatment was to provide medical and nutritional supplements to animals to maintain or restore their health. One prior art method of providing nutraceuticals to animals is in the form of multivitamins wherein a predetermined amount of nutritional supplements are administered, without variation, for a given set of animals. In such a method, the specific nutritional deficiencies of the individual animal are not addressed.
Other prior art methods have been developed for providing nutritional supplements to animals. However, none of these prior art methods provide for analyzing an animal and prescribing a nutraceutical program specifically tailored for that particular animal based on the analysis. In particular, the prior art does not provide for prescribing a nutraceutical program specifically tailored to address deficiencies of an animal, in terms of identifying desired nutraceuticals and calculating dosages for the identified nutraceuticals for treating such deficiencies in order to optimize the health of the animal. Further, the prior art does not disclose a method for optimizing the health of an animal which has blood scores in the normal range but which may still have some specific inadequacies.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for more refined methods and apparatus that can determine specific nutritional deficiencies of an animal that tests within a “normal” range. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide methods and systems for customized treatment of animals. It is another object of the present invention to provide methods and systems for customized treatment of animals based on blood analysis. It is a further object of the present invention to provide methods and systems of treating animals, tailored to individual animals, based on blood analysis of the animals. It is an additional object of the present invention to provide methods and systems for treating animals that may lack certain nutrients. It is still a further object of the present invention to provide methods and systems for treating animals that have organs that are not functioning optimally.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide methods and systems for treating animals, which tailors composition and dosages of neutraceuticals to the specific needs of an individual animal. It is still a further object of the present invention to provide methods and systems for veterinarians to forward an animal's blood work to a lab, and in response thereto, to receive a treatment recommendation. It is a further object of the present invention to provide methods and systems which enable a veterinarian to interact with a provider of nutraceutical treatment plans via a communications network, such as the Internet.
The methods and systems of the present invention provide the foregoing and other advantages.